Industry leaders, including Aviz Networks, Keysight Technologies, and World Wide Technology (WWT), unite vendors and users at PlugFest to test SONiC’s scalability, interoperability, and real-world deployment readiness. Participating vendors include Cisco, Celestica, Edgecore, and Wistron.
The 2025 SONiC PlugFest has successfully demonstrated that Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC) is enterprise-ready, marking a significant milestone in open networking standardization. Hosted at ONE Center, by Aviz Networks, Keysight, and WWT, the event provided a vendor-neutral platform for users and hardware vendors to validate real-world deployment use cases and advance SONiC’s adoption in modern data centers.
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With 48 participating companies spanning industries like retail, e-commerce, healthcare, telecommunications, cloud service providers, and financial services, the SONiC PlugFest showcased broad industry collaboration. These companies contributed real-world use cases and valuable input into the test plans, enabling rigorous scalability, interoperability, and performance testing. The results confirm that enterprises can confidently adopt a standard, vendor-agnostic NOS across diverse switching environments.
Validating SONiC for Data Centers, Edge and AI Networks
The PlugFest validated five critical deployment use cases, ensuring SONiC is ready for large-scale, AI-powered networking environments:
- VxLAN/EVPN – Advanced virtualized networking
- RoCE AI Fabric – High-performance AI-driven workloads
- L3 IP Clos – Scalable data center architectures
- Layer 2 Leaf-Spine – Core network topologies
- Power over Ethernet (PoE) – Enterprise-grade networking capabilities
One of the biggest revelations from the PlugFest was SONiC’s PoE-enabled whitebox switches and enterprise-grade Layer 2 (L2) support expanding SONiC’s applicability beyond hyperscalers into broader enterprise deployments.
TCO Analysis: SONiC’s Cost Advantage
PlugFest’s TCO analysis confirms that enterprises adopting SONiC-based open networking can achieve:
Up to 40% lower TCO compared to proprietary solutions
Reduced hardware costs by eliminating vendor lock-in and enabling multi-vendor flexibility
Lower operational expenses (OpEx) with no NOS licensing costs and reduced support subscription fees
Future-proof scalability for AI-driven workloads—without the high costs of closed-network environments
“The success of the 2025 PlugFest highlights that Community SONiC is no longer just for early adopters—it’s now an enterprise-ready NOS backed by real-world results across industries,” said Vishal Shukla, CEO of Aviz Networks. “With a strong vendor-neutral community, we’re proving that SONiC delivers real-world performance, scale, and interoperability, making it the go-to choice for modern AI-driven data centers while significantly lowering TCO.”
Industry Leaders Driving SONiC Adoption
Keysight powered the PlugFest with automated traffic generation, ensuring precise validation at scale.
“PlugFest showcases the power of automated, large-scale traffic testing in an open networking environment. By leveraging Keysight’s advanced validation tools, we enable vendors and users to push SONiC to its limits, proving its readiness for hyperscale and enterprise networks alike,” remarked Manodipto Ghose, Senior Product Manager at Keysight.
WWT played a key role in bridging lab testing with real-world enterprise deployments.
“For enterprises evaluating SONiC, the PlugFest is a game-changer,” observed Justin van Schaik, Technical Solutions Architect at WWT. “It’s one thing to hear about SONiC’s capabilities, but another to see it perform at scale. This event gives organizations the confidence they need to deploy an open, vendor-agnostic solution in their networks.”
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650 Group Recognizes SONiC’s Market Momentum
As part of the PlugFest initiative, Aviz Networks, Keysight Technologies, WWT, and 650 Group recorded an in-depth webinar to discuss the results, insights, and implications for enterprises evaluating SONiC. The session featured expert perspectives on SONiC’s scalability, cost advantages, and role in AI-driven networking environments.
During the webinar, Alan Weckel, Founding Analyst at 650 Group, shared insights into SONiC’s rapid adoption and its impact on AI-driven networking. The event highlighted key industry trends and real-world deployment considerations, reinforcing SONiC’s position as an enterprise-ready NOS.
“The momentum for SONiC is undeniable, as enterprises and cloud providers seek open, scalable solutions for AI-driven networks,” noted Weckel. “PlugFest 2025 reinforces the fact that SONiC is a mature, production-ready NOS that enterprises can deploy with confidence, thanks to a robust vendor ecosystem and proven interoperability.”
The Road Ahead: Accelerating SONiC Adoption
As AI-driven workloads continue to push the boundaries of network infrastructure, SONiC’s role as an open, scalable, and cost-efficient NOS is more critical than ever. The success of PlugFest 2025 sets the stage for broader industry collaboration, ensuring that enterprises and cloud providers have a robust, open-source alternative to traditional, proprietary networking solutions.
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